Rocksure Property Bravo Fund - Own 6 Worldwide Homes

Details

Written by Nick Copley

Published: 19 November 2007

Rocksure Property is launching a second fund to buy 6 luxury homes around the world, with an average value of £1m ($2m). Members of the fund enjoy free vacations and property appreciation. This fund follows the success of their first "Alpha" fund, which closed for new subscriptions in July.

The Homes

The London based fund plans to purchase its six homes in Buzios, Brazil, Phuket, Thailand, Marrakech, Morocco, The Algarve, Portugal, the Adriatic Coast, Croatia/Montenegro and Breckenridge, Colorado.

Membership in the fund provides both a luxury vacation option and an investment, so the homes are chosen on two factors (i) the potential for appreciation and (ii) collectively they offer year round sunshine, world class golf and skiing.

The luxuriously furnished homes will have four to five bedrooms and accommodate up to 10 people. Each will have a housekeeper/cook who will prepare meals as well as maid and part time gardener/pool maintenance person.

The Services

A Rocksure Representative/Concierge will coordinate reservations and provide inside information on what to see, places to eat, etc and will be available to provide support in the event of emergencies. The concierge can also organize nannies, private chefs and masseurs.

The concierge will also help with sports equipment and facilities such as ski equipment, access to golf courses and tee times and information on tennis, fishing, horse riding, mountain biking, sailing etc

The Fund & Membership

The Rocksure Property fund is planning to sell 40 units at £189,000 ($378,000) each to raise a total of £7,560,000. Each full unit entitles the owner to 4 rent free weeks each year, and the only other payment is £1,800 per year towards the management and maintenance of the homes. The fund will also offer both half and three quarter units.

The Bravo Fund will have an Initial Closing when the subscriptions have been received for 20 out of the 40 Units of investment. At this point, the investors money transfers from an escrow into the Fund account and the purchasing of the first three houses can commence. The Final Closing is expected to take place about 3 months later at which point all the money is in the Fund's account and the remaining three properties can be purchased. After 8 years the homes will be sold and the proceeds divided amongst the investors.

The fund also plans to rent out the homes for 20-25% of the time and the rental income will be used to offset the operating costs.

The Management & Background

The initial Rocksure Alpha fund raised £5.7m from 38 investors earlier this year, and has already purchased 5 homes in Breckenridge, Marrakech, Phuket (images above and right), Buzios, and the Algarve. So the management team already has the experience of setting up and running one of these funds.

The management of Rocksure includes David Rogers a former COO of Abercrombie & Kent and Desmond Patrick-Smith a former managing director of Abercrombie & Kent Europe, so there's also plenty of luxury travel experience.

When we spoke to David Rogers yesterday he noted that the equity structure of the fund is very much designed to appeal to a UK audience. He feels that Brits are much more focused on the potential returns from owning real estate, rather than just enjoying the luxury homes as part of a more traditional destination club membership structure.

Earlier this year we wrote about Worldwide Private Residences which has a very similar model but on a larger scale, with plans to buy 30 homes around the world. While Rocksure doesn't bill itself as a destination club, it is very much comparable to the equity destination clubs such as M Private Residences, Crescendo, BelleHavens and The Hideaways Club. Some of the other destination clubs such as LUSSO also offer their members a share of the increase in the value of the properties.